We
by Atiaran
Summary: A throwaway twinfic I wrote at 2:00 in the morning last night after seeing both Reloaded and Chasing Amy within a 24-hr period. Short and pointless. Twins, Matrix, etc. not mine. Shock is, for what she's worth.


We are—

—as one.

We have always been as one.  We will always be as one.

We do not remember how we started. We do not know precisely—though we suspect the Merovingian had something to do with it—nor do we care.  It is enough that we know that we now exist, and that we are together.

That is all that matters.  That has always been all that matters.  That we are as one.  One mind in two separate forms.  

We know that the others are not like this.  Persephone, the Merovingian himself, the Keymaker; they are not like we.  They are I, he, she.  We are, and have always been, we.

We do not know what it might be like to be separate.  Nor do we wish to know.  Being separate has always seemed to us like an unpleasant state.  To lack the other part of ourself in such a fashion seems unnatural and strange.  Better to be as we are.  Complete and whole.  In accord on every matter.  Acting as one being, thinking as one being.

It is convenient, that we have two forms.  When chasing down one of the tiny, limited humans that infest the Matrix in which we live, it is often easier; we can send one part of ourselves ahead to cut off the human's escape route while the other part continues to pursue from behind, and so we can trap the unfortunate victim in this fashion.  Or we can send one part of us to where the human would not expect.  Or one part can pursue while the other part guards the Keymaker.  It does not matter which one does which.  Or it should not.  We are as one.  We share every action, every word, every thought.

Until we do not.

Two months ago.  It happened two months ago.  Her name was Shock, or at least that was what she called herself.  We do not recall her true name, nor do we care;

She is entirely herself—

—it has no relevance.

She is—

_—was—_

a hacker. She _was_ a hacker.   She may have been from Zion, or may have been just a talented amateur.  We did not know, nor was it relevant.  It _was_ relevant that she had found the Oracle, learned of the Architect, been directed to find the Keymaker—

—she  fought the Seraph _and won_.

The Merovingian believed that she might be another One, though Persephone disagreed.  Persephone disagrees with almost everything the Merovingian says now.  We think that she is becoming aggravated with him.  Not that it matters to us.  It has no relevance.

Shock—

—the hacker—

was drawing close to the cell of the Keymaker.  The Merovingian told us to deal with her.  One part went; the other stayed.  We had done such things many times before.  

How were we to know that this time…..

She fought—_so well_—

—She did not.  She did not fight especially well, considering that the Merovingian thought she might be the One.  In fact, if she were the One, she would be the weakest One that we have ever encountered—

—she fought well enough to defeat _us—_

—She did not.

—She did.

_She did._

Such a thing had not happened for many, many years.

She moved with a grace, a speed.  Her control over the Matrix was very, very good—

—though she fought poorly—

—She did not fight poorly.  And her control over the Matrix was good enough to stop us from phasing.

It was good.  It was that good.  Only the Merovingian had been able to do that to us before.  We did not like it then.  We do not like it now.

She defeated us.  She knocked us into a wall, and it collapsed on top of us.  We could have continued to fight

—but why?  To kill her?  To destroy something capable of such perfection of speed, of grace?  Why?

—We had to.  It was our duty.

—We did not have to.  And so we did not.  We could not.  Not after we had fought her.  Not after we had seen her.  We thought she was almost….beautiful.

—We did not.

—We did.

—No.  We did not.

We did not. 

_We _did not.

This—

—was something new.

It was something that we did not expect.

Something that we did not want.

_We_ did not think that the hacker—

—that Shock—

—should live.

—should be killed.

This had never happened before.  But we could not—

—let her live.

—let her die.

And we saw this.  We knew what was happening.  We knew our orders, our duty, were to kill her.  We had to, to keep her from the Keymaker.  We knew what we should do, but we could not do it.  We _did not want to_ do it—

—We did.

—We did not.

No.  Not we.

_You_.

You did not.

 I—

There was a divergence.  We were _not of the same mind._  We no longer operated as one being in two parts.  

This was—

—terrifying.

_You_ did not want to kill her.

_You _did not want to let her live.

—She was the problem.  She had caused this split between us.  This dissension.  She had caused us to look at each other and see not we, but _you._  She was the cause of this rift.  We had to kill her—

—We did not.

—We did.  And we did. _I _did.  

We knew that we were supposed to guard the Keymaker.  One part was guarding his cell while the other fought—

—did not fight—

—Shock

—the hacker.

We knew we fought, and we knew we did not kill.  We knew that we were not going to kill.  But we had to kill, both to fulfill our orders and to close the breach between us.  She was the cause of it.  If she was dead, then the breach would seal itself again.  And we would again be a seamless "we."

—We left the guarding of the Keymaker's cell.  He could not escape in any case.  We left and went to where we were—

—fighting—

—not fighting—

the human.  We appeared behind her.  She did not see us.

We saw us.

We saw us level our gun at her head.  We saw ourself pull the trigger.  We saw her blood spurt forward and splash us.  We saw her—

—graceful, beautiful—

—lifeless—

form fall forward and hit the ground.  We saw her eyes glazing in death. 

We killed her.

No.  Not we.  _You _killed her.

I killed her.

We had to.  She had caused a rift.  She had caused us to think different thoughts.  This could not be allowed.  It impaired our ability to function as a team.  And furthermore, it….

We—

—_you_—

_—we­—_

thought that killing her would solve the problem.  Once she was dead, so we—

_—you_—

reasoned, the cause of the rift would be gone, and we would again be one as we had always been.

This did not happen.  

—Now we are divided.  We are…aggravated.  We are, we think, even _angry.  _With ourselves.  We.do not communicate as we did in the past.   We trade little information beyond what is absolutely necessary.  We know our thoughts, but dimly.  And they are always full of—

—Shock—

--that hacker and how she died.  We regret her absence.  We wish that she had not been killed.  Her death angers us.  And this wish that she had not been killed angers us.  Killing her was our duty, both to the Merovingian ….and to ourselves.  If she had been permitted to live, then the separateness between us might have grown and grown, until we were no longer "we" at all anymore.  Such a thing must not be.  It cannot be.  We cannot be less than we.

_I _cannot be _I_. 

_I_…do not wish…to be _I_.

—We—

—I—

—You—

—_we_ did the right thing.  We took the only possible choice.  But we do not understand this.  We do not understand that it was the only possible choice.  We do not, and yet we do.  One part of us does not, the other part does.  We do not know how this can be, and yet it is.  

Perhaps killing her was not the right thing to do after all.

Maybe this divide will pass in time.  But until

—_unless_—

—_unless_— 

it does, we are….to some extent….separate.  We _are_ less than we.

—The divide will pass.  It must pass.  And we will be again—

—as one.

We will.

We _will._


End file.
